Howard Memorial Hospital Earns Highest Rating from Medicare

Apr 28, 2015 Awards & Recognition

WILLITS, CA -- For businesses, there’s Yelp, for hotels there’s Tripadvisor or Expedia. Now with a new government rating system, hospitals are being reviewed by their “customers” in a similar fashion – with Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital (HMH) receiving rave reviews!

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) assigned stars to 3,553 hospitals and gave HMH five stars based on how patients graded their stay. HMH was one of only eight hospitals in California that received five stars and the only hospital in the Bay Area. Medicare gave out four stars to 34 percent of those it evaluated. Forty percent received three stars, and 16 percent received two stars. The lowest rating, one star was given to 101 hospitals. These and other data are available on CMS’ public information website, Hospital Compare, which makes it easier for consumers to choose a hospital and understand the quality of care they deliver.

The ratings, based on patient surveys, measured the hospital experience in 11 key areas. The survey asked patients how well doctors and nurses communicated, how quickly staff responded to patient requests for help, pain control, explanations of medicines, cleanliness of rooms and restrooms, how quiet a facility was at night and whether patients received sufficient information to help with their recovery after discharge.

“This achievement is a testament to the compassionate care our staff and providers provide for patients every day. When I arrived nearly four years ago, Dr. Bowen told me there is a unique “spirit” of caring lived out through all those that work here – and patients can really feel the difference – after all they have given us this five star rating – something major medical centers around the U.S. can’t even claim. We are truly thankful to our staff that provides the care and our patients who have given us the highest ranking of any hospital in the Bay Area.” s¬¬hares Rick Bockmann, President and CEO of HMH.

Becky Hope, the hospital’s Planetree coordinator, agrees, “As a small community hospital, this is such a great honor for us. It proves that our efforts through Planetree to create the best patient experience imaginable are making an impact, and our patients can feel it. We all work together to take care of our patients and their family members and it’s good to know our efforts are paying off.”

Planetree, which has been at the center of HMH efforts in improving the patient experience espouses a model of care built around personalizing, humanizing and demystifying health care from the patient’s perspective and focuses on healing not just the body but also the spirit, which fits perfectly with the mission of HMH to share God’s love by provide physical, mental and spiritual healing.

“I am continually energized by the amazing stories of how our staff goes above and beyond the call of duty to care for individual patient’s needs. This is a culture we plan on continuing as we open our new hospital soon. We are hoping that more space and modern equipment at the new facility will help improve the patient experience even more,” concludes Bockmann.

Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital is a 25-bed acute care hospital recognized internationally for dedication to high quality patient-centered care. Services include the Orthopedic Joint Center of Northern California, state-of-the-art radiology imaging, laboratory, in-patient and out-patient surgery, 24 hour emergency services, physical therapy, and soon to be full service restaurant. For more information about these services please visit www.howardhospital.com.